Please - put air in my tires & keep me clean and lubed!

[shadon]

Such a good reminder here to take care of your ride. As a new rider, I know I'm guilty of not really paying attention to my bike. When I've takn the time to clean it, put air in the tires before I leave, I have an easier and more pleasuralble ride.

When I just go flying out of the house, I find my ride harder, and myself more frustrated...

Baby your bike!

[ladyfish]

That's a great article. Easy to understand, and easy to follow! I guess I need to spend more money on a bike stand (good tip, Yellow). The best part is now I can show my DH that I really DO need to keep my bike parked in the Living Room--we don't use that room for entertaining, so I figure it's a great bike room!!

[Deborajen]

Thanks for the information.--

Sometimes the very basic stuff frustrates me the most - I was told "Clean your bike often" (but what's often - ?). We were just discussing some of the basics with our teenage son, in fact.

One question - Does the chain need to be lubed only on the inside of the links? LBS showed me how to lean the bike away to keep oil off of frame parts, etc., but they didn't explain anything about excessive lube. My chain always seems to look "gunky" compared to a lot of the others on group rides so I'm probably putting on too much. Will holding a paper towel on the chain and turning the pedals until the entire chain has been wiped take off the excess without taking off too much? I know it sounds really simple, but the little things are what I seem to mess up on the most.

I bought a chain-cleaning gizmo but found that I like the spray on degreaser better. It really seems to cut through and leave a nice shine. LBS recommended a bike wash, but they said try not to get it on the tires because they have kevlar in them and the cleaner can weaken the kevlar.

Tires - we've exploded a few inner tubes, but we're getting the hang of watching the position of the tire bead as you air up a newly replaced tube, and in light of that we're not as fearful of putting in the correct amount of air instead of chickening out too soon - Plus we got a better floor pump that I can use and don't have to call in my husband for more muscle.--

Deb

[TrekJeni]

One of my training buddies was doing some preventative work on her bike. Noticed some screws that looked loose and tightneed them. Couldn't figure out why she couldn't shift.

DO NOT TIGHTEN YOUR LIMIT SCREWS on your derailer!

Jeni
(good post Denise)

[DrBee]

Great posts Denise and Yellow. Thanks! I had been pretty good about checking the air on my tires, but with recent traveling I forgot. As I posted on Saturday - I went out and felt lousy, realized my tire pressure was low and came back and pumped up the tires to 110. I don't know if riding on them low caused damage or not, but the rear tube blew (with quite a bang) later that afternoon. I will not make the same mistake twice and will check my tire pressure before each ride.

Thanks again!

[SnappyPix]

Denise,

Um, thanks for posting this ... you shamed me into spending my free afternoon lovingly cleaning and lubing my poor neglected bike!
I even got round to replacing the brake pads, which has been on my to-do list for the past 7 months! Then had to completely readjust my brakes because the new pads were SO much fatter than the worn out paper thin ones I sheepishly took off...
Oh, and pumped the tyres.
Am I excused now?!

[Geonz]

Yup, write "I will not neglect my bicycle" 10 times, and then you can go outside and PLAY.